“Hidden In Plain View is a shot across the bow of contemporary rock. Mincing no words or notes, the New Jersey-based quintet arrives at a time when music needs new blood, new ideas. Says lead singer and co-lead songwriter Joe Reo, ‘We use this standard: ‘Keep it as real as possible.’ HIPV heroes include everyone from blink-182 and At the Drive In, to Jimmy Eat World and Foo Fighters and the band has come up with their own ‘sui generis’ style: guitar-centered, melody driven, rhythmically complex. ‘We try to keep it catchy,’ notes Joe. ‘We play what we think we'd want to hear’”
(Information taken from Drive-Thru Records)
Operation: Cut Throat takes place before the
Life In Dreaming LP and their more popular, self titled EP. Unlike the other two albums, this release wasn’t on Drive-Thru records. Since this album wasn’t released through Drive-Thru, it makes it very hard to find. After I bought HIPV’s self-titled EP at Best Buy, I looked for their only other release at the time; Operation: Cut Throat.
(I have heard that there was also an EP before this… but I’m not too sure on that.) After hearing either the self-titled EP or
Life In Dreaming, this album will sound completely different than both of those releases. This album doesn’t contain hard songs with screaming in the background. It has a more pop feel to it. Joe and Rob often alternate vocals throughout the songs and synth can even be found in some of the tracks. In my opinion, I would have preferred HIPV staying like this, only building more upon it.
The album starts of with the most popular song from this album,
An American Classic. People probably recognize this song from the fact that they re-recorded this for their debut LP,
Life In Dreaming. This song perfectly shows the old, upbeat side of HIPV. The alternating vocals are perfect and the guitars sound perfectly blended in with the song. Another highlight in this song, and any other song, is their drummer, Jay. Pop-punk bands seem to have talented drummers to back the poppy vocals and this stays true with Hidden In Plain View. Overall, this song only comes out to be an average pop-punk song and nothing special.
The second song of this album shows an introduction of something people probably wouldn’t expect from HIPV after hearing the newer stuff.
Sagamore features a synth beginning, which is something that isn’t a part of their newer stuff. The song has a faster feel than
An American Classic and during the chorus, the drummer lays down harmonics while Joe and Rob alternate the job of being the vocalist of the band.
Sagamore saves the band from just being a “typical pop-punk band.”
After the fast-paced
Sagamore, the album slows down to
Milligrams for Migraines. When I first got this album, I liked this song a lot. While I am typing this review and listening to it, I really don’t like it. So, hopefully
Same To You will come and save the album from falling back to average, or worse. The start of the song sounds weird, like it shouldn’t belong the album however that riff dies out and the song officially starts. The guitar riffs are short and contain a lot of rests and it sounds really great. There are also parts where the guitar just doesn’t play and it’s just the bass, drums and Joe’s vocals. The end of the song is wonderful and it sounds really hardcore influenced – but obviously this isn’t a hardcore album.
Full Count and
Eyes Like A Target round the album off for it’s finish.
Full Count starts very beautiful with both guitars and everything dies down for the song to start with Joe and Rob doing the traditional vocals. The only downside to this song, and what ruins it for me, is the lyrics. It’s one of those “typical pop-punk song” lyrics, talking about how they won’t change because they’ve always been that way.
Eyes Like A Target start with a synth and Joe and Rob harmonizing with vocals. Not only is this the last song but it’s also the longest. There isn’t really anything special about it until around three minutes through. Where everything slows down and Joe sings softly about standing outside someone’s window and you’re expecting something cute… but he says,
“I started throwing rocks because damn, you’re such a creep.” Then the same line is repeated very slowly until the end of the song,
“Yeah, I tried to hit you right between the eyes.”.
Eyes Like A Target was a good way to end the album.
Final Analysis
The album has a good opening songs and a good closing song. The problems with this album lie around the middle with weak songs like
Milligrams For Migraines and
Full Count. The only songs, in my opinion that are worth listening to are
Sagamore and
Same To You. If you happen to own
Life In Dreaming, it wouldn’t hurt checking out
An American Classic so you could hear the difference that three years have made for the band.
